The history of FIFA World Cup

There is nothing in football that can compare with the World Cup. Even though the UEFA Champions League may produce games in the same quality, it can't overreach the status earned from the long tradition and the fact that one team represent a single country. No other sport event can compete in significance: the latest FIFA World Cup reached 3.2 billion television viewers worldwide and one billion watched the final.

Contents

Background

Before the World Cup was inaugurated, the football tournament arranged as part of the Summer Olympics was given the most prestige. But in the 1920s, the game was facing a transition to professionalism which wasn't consistent with the Olympic spirit. Therefore, the government body, FIFA, made plans to organize a World Cup. The decisions of arranging the first edition was officially declared on May 26, 1928.

All World Cup tournaments

The first World Cup was played in Uruguay and since then the tournament has been held every fourth year (with exceptions for interruption due to the Second World War). Ever since the first official World Cup in 1930, FIFA had remained the organizer. There was, however, unofficial pre-FIFA World Cups already in the late 1800s, in a time then only few national teams existed. Another unofficial "world cup" arranged before 1930 was Sir Thomas Lipton Trophy held in 1909 and 1911. Besides that, the Summer Olympic football competitions would be a mark of which the best national teams were before 1930 – the Olympic tournaments consisted however only of amateur teams due to the regulations, so the World Cup became the real deal.

1930: Urugay

The FIFA World Cup 1930 was played in Uruguay 3 July-30 July, with 13 nations.

2018: Russia

Teams with most titles and finals

Statistics of all national teams that have won or played a final together with numbers of participation in World Cup, concerning the period 1930-2018.

Table 1. Most successful national teams in FIFA World Cup

Team

Titles

Finals

Participation

Brazil

5

7

21

Germany

4

8

19

Italy

4

6

18

Argentina

2

3

17

France

2

3

15

Uruguay

2

2

13

England

1

1

15

Spain

1

1

15

Netherlands

0

3

10

Czechoslovakia

0

2

9

Hungary

0

2

9

Sweden

0

1

12

Croatia

0

1

5

World Cup finals

All finals including winners of World Cup 1930-2018.

Table 2. Finals and results

Year

Home team*

Away team*

Result

1930

Uruguay

Argentina

4-2

1934

Italy

Czechoslovakia

2-1 (a.e.t)

1938

Hungary

Italy

2-4

1950**

Uruguay

Brazil

2-1

1954

West Germany

Hungary

3-2

1958

Brazil

Sweden

5-2

1962

Brazil

Czechoslovakia

3-1

1966

England

West Germany

4-2 (a.e.t.)

1970

Brazil

Italy

4-1

1974

Netherlands

West Germany

1-2

1978

Netherlands

Argentina

1-3 (a.e.t.)

1982

Italy

West Germany

3-1

1986

Argentina

West Germany

3-2

1990

West Germany

Argentina

1-0

1994

Brazil

Italy

3-2 (pen.)

1998

Brazil

France

0-3

2002

Germany

Brazil

0-2

2006

Italy

France

6-4 (pen.)

2010

Netherlands

Spain

0-1 (a.e.t.)

2014

Germany

Argentina

1-0 (a.e.t.)

2018

France

Croatia

4-2

* The home and away team are only technical.
** No final was played since the tournament was decided by a group phase in which the listed match was the most decisive.
a.e.t. stands for after extra time.
pen. stands for penalties, meaning the match was decided after extra time plus penalty shootout.

The home advantage

One noticeable aspect in the World Cup history is that the home team has been over performing. On six occasions have the home team won the World Cup. And besides that, many teams that normally doesn’t compete with the greatest teams have gone far in the tournament then playing on home ground. For example Sweden in 1958, reaching the final, and South Korea in 2006, reaching the Semi-finals.

The five players that have made most goals overall are Ronaldo (18 goals in 4 tournaments), Miroslav Klose (16 goals in 4 tournaments), Gerd Müller (14 goals in 2 tournaments), Just Fontaine (13 goals in 1 tournament) and Péle (12 goals in 4 tournaments).

World Cup Awards

In connection to the World Cup several awards are given to some players. The most known is The Golden Ball that is an award that goes to the best player in a FIFA World Cup. Candidates are decided by FIFA which media representatives are voting on. Besides the Golden Ball there are also the Silver Ball and the Bronze Ball together with the Golden Boot (top goalscorer) and the Golden Glove (best goalkeeper).

World Cup by continents

A performance comparison by continents (including World Cup 1930-2018).

Table 4. Continent versus continent in FIFA World Cup

Continent

Titles

To reach final

To reach semi-finals

Europe

12

28

52

South America

9

14

22

Asia

0

0

1

Central and North America

0

0

0

Africa

0

0

0

Oceania

0

0

0

Numbers of participants and games

The following table shows the numbers of participating team in all World Cup tournaments. The numbers in the second column concerns the final stage and the third column all teams that took part in the qualification. In addition, you can see the numbers of games (qualification games excluded) in the fourth column.

Table 5. Participating teams from first to last FIFA World Cup tournament

Year

Teams
(final)

Teams
(qualification)

Games
(final)

1930

13

no qualification

18

1934

16

32

17

1938

16*

37

18

1950

15**

36

22

1954

16

37

26

1958

16

55

35

1962

16

56

32

1966

16

74

32

1970

16

75

32

1974

16

99

38

1978

16

107

38

1982

24

109

52

1986

24

121

52

1990

24

116

52

1994

24

147

52

1998

32

174

64

2002

32

199

64

2006

32

197

64

2010

32

204

64

2014

32

203

64

2018

32

210

64

* Austria were abolished before the first game of political reasons.
** France and India withdraw after qualification.
References:
http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/news/y=2015/m=12/news=2014-fifa-world-cuptm-reached-3-2-billion-viewers-one-billion-watched--2745519.html
http://www.fifa.com/fifa-tournaments/statistics-and-records/worldcup/